Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 28: Commemorate the International Access to Information Day, the Jammu and Kashmir RTI Movement held a workshop on RTI Act 2005 at Khyber Public School Chadoora Budgam, here today.
The participants during the workshop urged Lt Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha to provide filing of online RTI applications in J&K.
Speaking at the workshop, chairman RTI Movement, Dr Raja Muzaffar said that the theme of International Access to Information Day -2022 is ‘Artificial Intelligence’, ‘e-Governance’ and ‘Access to Information’ which stresses on making all the information digitally available.
”By not giving citizens the facility of filing online RTI applications, the dream of digital India or e-Governance cannot be achieved. It is very difficult to get a Postal Order of Rs 10 from a post office and then taking printouts of the RTI application and then sending the same via speed post to Govt offices in J&K,” he asserted.
”It is consuming a lot of time for RTI applicants and in 21st century this looks quite obsolete. If there is a provision in the law itself to seek information digitally/ electronically, why are these facilities denied to people of J & K?” said Dr Raja Muzaffar while speaking during the workshop.
Among others who spoke during the workshop included Dr Mushtaq Khan, Shahnawaz Sultan, Dr Rauf Malik, Advocate Nazir, Advocate Badrul Dujja, Syed Farhat, Mushtaq Ahmad and others
Pertinently, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on 17 November 2015, declared that International Day for Universal Access to Information will be observed on September 28, every year.
The theme of this year’s Global Conference organised by UNESCO is being held at Tashkent and the theme of the conference is “Artificial Intelligence, e-Governance and Access to Information”. The conference includes a high-level opening and an inter-ministerial roundtable on Access to Information and Artificial Intelligence with international experts.
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